The Bee-Man of Orn

A free download from http://www.dertz.in


The Bee-Man of Orn

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bee-Man of Orn and Other
Fanciful Tales
by Frank R. Stockton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg
License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Bee-Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales
Author: Frank R. Stockton
Release Date: April 17, 2004 [EBook #12067]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEE-MAN
OF ORN AND OTHERS ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Kevin Field and PG Distributed
Proofreaders

[Transcriber's note: Italics and bold markup only occurred in the ads for

other books at the beginning and end, and using the standard italics or
*bold* just made it hard to read, so this markup has been removed in
the plain-text version.]

FRANK R. STOCKTON'S WRITINGS.
* * * * *
New Uniform Edition.
THE BEE-MAN OF ORN, and Other Fanciful Tales. THE LADY OR
THE TIGER? and Other Stories. THE CHRISTMAS WRECK, and
Other Stories. THE LATE MRS NULL. RUDDER GRANGE.
The set, five vols., $6.25; each, $1.25.
* * * * *
RUDDER GRANGE. New Illustrated Edition. With over 100
Illustrations by A.B. Frost. Square 12mo, $2.00.
* * * * *
THE LADY OR THE TIGER? and Other Stories. 12mo, paper, 50
cents.
THE CHRISTMAS WRECK, and Other Stories. 12mo, paper, 50
cents.
RUDDER GRANGE. 12mo, paper, 60 cents.
* * * * *
A JOLLY FRIENDSHIP. Illustrated, 12mo, $1.50.
THE STORY OF VITEAU. Illustrated, 12mo, $1.50.
THE TING-A-LING TALES. Illustrated, 12mo, $1.00.

THE FLOATING PRINCE, and Other Fairy Tales. Illustrated, 4to,
cloth, $2.50; boards, $1.50.
ROUNDABOUT RAMBLERS IN LANDS OF FACT AND FANCY.
Illustrated. 4to, boards, $1.50.
TALES OUT OF SCHOOL. Illustrated. 4to, boards, $1.50.

THE BEE-MAN OF ORN
AND
OTHER FANCIFUL TALES
BY
FRANK R. STOCKTON

New York 1887 Charles Scribner's Sons.
Rand Avery Company, Electrotypers and Printers, Boston.

CONTENTS.
* * * * *
I. THE BEE-MAN OF ORN
II. THE GRIFFIN AND THE MINOR CANON
III. OLD PIPES AND THE DRYAD
IV. THE QUEEN'S MUSEUM
V. CHRISTMAS BEFORE LAST; OR, THE FRUIT OF THE

FRAGILE PALM
VI. PRINCE HASSAK'S MARCH
VII. THE BATTLE OF THE THIRD COUSINS
VIII. THE BANISHED KING
IX. THE PHILOPENA

THE BEE-MAN OF ORN.
* * * * *
In the ancient country of Orn, there lived an old man who was called
the Bee-man, because his whole time was spent in the company of bees.
He lived in a small hut, which was nothing more than an immense
bee-hive, for these little creatures had built their honeycombs in every
corner of the one room it contained, on the shelves, under the little
table, all about the rough bench on which the old man sat, and even
about the head-board and along the sides of his low bed. All day the air
of the room was thick with buzzing insects, but this did not interfere in
any way with the old Bee-man, who walked in among them, ate his
meals, and went to sleep, without the slightest fear of being stung. He
had lived with the bees so long, they had become so accustomed to him,
and his skin was so tough and hard, that the bees no more thought of
stinging him than they would of stinging a tree or a stone. A swarm of
bees had made their hive in a pocket of his old leathern doublet; and
when he put on this coat to take one of his long walks in the forest in
search of wild bees' nests, he was very glad to have this hive with him,
for, if he did not find any wild honey, he would put his hand in his
pocket and take out a piece of a comb for a luncheon. The bees in his
pocket worked very industriously, and he was always certain of having
something to eat with him wherever he went. He lived principally upon
honey; and when he needed bread or meat, he carried some fine combs
to a village not far away and bartered them for other food. He was ugly,
untidy, shrivelled, and brown. He was poor, and the bees seemed to be

his only friends. But, for all that, he was happy and contented; he had
all the honey he wanted, and his bees, whom he considered the best
company in the world, were as friendly and sociable as they could be,
and seemed to increase in number every day.
One day, there stopped at the hut of the Bee-man a Junior